UNTRUSTWORTHY

Feds Opens Antitrust Probe of Microsoft’s AI Deal

The FTC is investigating whether Microsoft structured a lucrative deal to avoid an antitrust review.

The FTC is investigating Microsoft’s lucrative deal with Inflection AI to see whether the tech giant attempted to maneuver around a government review that could’ve killed it, The Wall Street Journal reported. The probe surrounds Microsoft’s $650 million deal with Inflection, brokered in March, to hire its co-founder and most of its staff and purchase its technology. Sources told the WSJ that the FTC is now trying to determine whether Microsoft designed the deal in such a way as to dodge government interference by way of FTC review. Microsoft, which is locked in a heated AI arms race with its competitors, would have been required by law to report an acquisition worth more than $119 million to the FTC for review, who would then evaluate whether the deal would violate antitrust laws and sue to stop the merger if it found the deal hurt competition. Now, if the FTC finds that Microsoft tried to avoid its review, it could still suspend the transaction and hit the tech giant with a fine.